Does Delivery Length Impact Measures of Whole-Body Biomechanical Load During Pace Bowling?

Abstract

To investigate whether changes in delivery length (ie,short, good, and full) lead to alterations in whole-body biomechanical loading as determined by ground reaction force during front-foot contact of the delivery stride for pace bowlers. Current load-monitoring practices of pace bowling in cricket assume equivocal biomechanical loading as only the total number of deliveries are monitored irrespective of delivery length. A total of 16 male pace bowlers completed a 2-over spell at maximum intensity while targeting different delivery lengths (short, 7-10m; good, 4-7m; and full, 0-4m from the batter's stumps). In-ground force plates were used to determine discrete (vertical and braking force, impulse, and loading rates) and continuous front-foot contact ground reaction force. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (P < .05), effects size, and statistical parametrical mapping were used to determine differences between delivery lengths. There were no significant differences between short, good, and full delivery lengths for the discrete and continuous kinetic variables investigated (P = .19-1.00), with trivial to small effect sizes. There were minimal differences in front-foot contact biomechanics for deliveries of different lengths (ie,short, good, and full). These data reinforce current pace bowling load-monitoring practices (ie,counting the number of deliveries), as changes in delivery length do not affect the whole-body biomechanical loading experienced by pace bowlers. This is of practical importance as it retains simplicity in load-monitoring practice that is used widely across different competition levels and ages.